Sunday, December 20, 2020

Tall Ships Volunteers ; A Big Community Across the Country with a lot in Common

 We  don't think much on it, but Spirit of South Carolina Volunteers are really part of a much larger community of people all over the country who share an interest, even a passion for the maritime heritage represented by tall ships.  Most tall ship programs are bolstered by a corps of volunteers, whose dedication, efforts, and talent, provide indispensable support. Some volunteer programs, like ours are relatively nascent, while others are long established, and institutional in their recognized importance.

The links below offer a glimpse into some of these tall ships programs, along with their volunteer programs. They're worth looking into, as a source of ideas, maybe even inspiration.

 South Street Seaport Museum, at the southeastern corner of Manhattan in New York City, curates the full-rigged  Tall-ship Wavertree, and Schooner, Pioneer. They are supported by a large corps of active volunteers. More on their activities at this link: 

South Street Seaport Volunteers

Pride of Baltimore II is a generic replica of "Baltimore Clipper" topsail schooners that ranged out of the eastern coast in the late 18th and early 19th century.  Best known as privateers in the American Revolution, and War of 1812, they also, infamously became the favorites of slavers and pirates for their speed, and shallow draft. Pride of Baltimore II's website includes the  

Captain's Log, a blog of all activities involving her volunteers.   

Their program also maintains an active Facebook Page Pride II

Harvey Gamage , a Maine schooner sailing under the auspices of Ocean Passages, is a consistent visitor to Charleston and has been operating programs that keep her sailing the length of the eastern coast from Main to the Caribbean.  

Her blog Ocean Passages   contains a pretty good recap of her activities. 

Maritime Museum of San Diego curates four Tall Ships;  Star of India, HMS Surprise (ne; HMS Rose), Topsail Schooner, Californian, and 16th Century Galleon San Salvador. Volunteers are actively engaged in all aspects of their care and operation. The museum maintains a fairly robust Volunteer-oriented webpage and blog: 

Get Involved


Barque Elissa;  The only other active tall ship south of the Chesapeake, other than Spirit of South Carolina, is Elissa, in Galveston Texas.. She's a doozy. She also runs an active Volunteer sail training program.

SailTrainingonboard.

SSV Roseway   She's well known for her tanbark died sails, and more significantly as a still active original-not replica schooner.  She docks regularly at Charleston, and takes on volunteers as needed during her passages up and down the coast, and into the Caribbean.  

Volunteer opportunities


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